Literature Vanishing from School Curriculum : Prof Govind Prasad Sharma, NBT

Literature is vanishing from school curriculam thereby
clipping the wings of imagination and robbing the child of a meaningful life
despite having a successful career. He
said that technology is transforming society and impacting the intellectual
growth of children. The kind of education you give to the society, you get the
same kind of people, according to Shri Govind Prasad Sharma, Chairman of National Book Trust. He was speaking at 'Scrapbook 2019 - Children's Publishing
Conclave' with the theme Diversity of Content, organised by FICCI.
"Sahitya (literature) is vanishing from education and schools. There is no
language section in Class 11 and 12. And, the focus on science and technology
may give the child a successful career and a job but literature can build a
sense of compassion, sympathy and cooperation among the children," he
said.
Prof Sharma urged the
publishers of children's books to create content that not only helps children
lead a Safal Jiwan (successful life) but also Sarthak Jiwan(meaningful life)
that goes beyond working for self and family by contributing towards society.
He said, "Literature gives the wings of imagination even to a scientist
for great works."
Dr Hrushikesh Senapaty,
Director, NCERT said that it is a matter of great concern whether the society
is preparing a good human being, a good citizen despite most of the children
scoring above 90 per cent in studies. For this, he said that a complete change
of mindset is required to destress the children and make them innovative.
"Knowledge construction
will be done by the children themselves, but we will have to create the
conducive environment. We will have to facilitate and encourage divergent
thinking for innovation and creativity among the children," Dr Senapaty
said.
Mr Ratnesh Jha, Chair, FICCI
Publishing Committee and MD, Cambridge University Press said that the maximum
impact on mind happens in early age and publishers have a huge business
opportunity in children's literature to provide customised and diverse content
on different platforms both for school text books and leisure reading.
Ms Karthika V.K., Co-Chair,
FICCI Publishing Committee and Publisher, Westland said, "We need a lot of
diversity in the content we create, in world views and points of view amongst
us that allows us to engage with each other. We need many kinds of children,
many kinds of students, many kinds of books and I hope Scrapbook will allow us
to think further on all of these aspects."
FICCI, in partnership with
Grant Thornton, will be preparing a survey-based study on book buying behaviour
with a chapter on children's books. Also, the jury members of FICCI Publishing
Awards were announced at the event.
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